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Search for the interior meaning of ritual: upāsana and –vidyā in the early Upaniṣadic exegesis

Upaniṣadic passages containing some distinctive teachings are traditionally named -vidyās ; this convention is often followed even in indological literature (L. Schmithausen ‘Zur Textgeschichte der Pañcāgnividyā’, O. Strauss ‘Udgīthavidyā’ etc.). Already Śaṅkara remarked in Brahmasūtra-Bhāṣya 3, 3.8 (while discussing udgītha chapters in ChU 1, 2 and BĀU 1, 3) that the title udgītha-vidyā does not appear in the śruti ; it is given conventionally ‘by ordinary men engaged in the subject’ (laukikair vyavahartṛbhiḥ) because the word udgītha appears in both Upaniṣadic texts under consideration. The aim of this presentation is to show how and why the concept of -vidyā in a sense of distinguishing certain Upaniṣadic passage emerged and what was its role in the early Upaniṣadic exegesis and in the formation of the Vedānta as a school of Upaniṣadic interpretation. As an example, this paper will present a part of Brahma-Sūtra 3, 3 that discusses whether udgītha passages in ChU 1, 2 and BĀU 1, 3 constitute the same vidyā or two distinctive vidyās. The oldest extant commentaries (Śaṅkara, Bhāskara and Rāmānuja) appear to incorporate elements of ancient Upaniṣadic interpretations composed prior to the aforementioned commentaries ; these passages contain numerous references to ritual literature. Following textual clues in BrahSū and commentaries, it will be proposed that certain Upaniṣadic passages were interpreted similarly as the ritual passages from Brāhmaṇas are used in the Mīmāṃsā-Sūtras and in Śabara- Bhāṣya ; in this sense Upaniṣad passages present a kind of mental concept or ‘meditation’ (as -vidyā is often translated) formed on a pattern parallel to the treatment of ritual (and ritual texts) devised in Pūrva- Mīmāṃsā. In this context, the concept of upāsana (only the verb upa√ās ‘taking a seat near, approaching, approaching mental, examining, worshiping’ appears in the Upaniṣads) appears closely connected to -vidyā as a process of searching for the interior meaning inherent also in the rituals.

upāsana ; interiorization ; ritual ; exegesis

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